Trivia: Mel Brooks was Executive Producer but was uncredited so people wouldn't think the movie was a comedy.
Trivia: The code for successful surprise (and the movie's title) "Tora! Tora! Tora!" was a shortening of the words totsugeki (attack) and raigeki (the Japanese term for torpedo bombers), and was originally spelled "To ra, to ra, to ra!" Those two shortened words were interpreted by American radio operators, who happened to intercept them, as the Japanese word for "tiger"; hence "Tora! Tora! Tora!"
Trivia: Haing S. Ngor and Dith Pran actually met up in real life and even visited the old country - Vietnam - together before Haing's death.
Trivia: Paul McGann plays both Girard (the man out to revenge his sister's honor) and the Cardinal's Guard who is killed by D'Artagnan out by the city ruins.
Trivia: In one scene Paul is listening to the radio and a broadcast of the debate about whether what was happening in Rwanda was considered genocide. During the conflict there was a news conference that was very similar to the one on the radio. One of the reasons that the US and UN would not label (or appear to label) the situation as genocide was that under legal obligations they would have had to act to prevent and punish the perpetrators if they said what was happening in Rwanda was genocide.
Trivia: This is the second JFK-related film starring Kevin Costner in which he has played someone other than Kennedy. The first was 'JFK'.
Trivia: When the Christians fire their first volley at the Muslims, one of the guys screams a Wilhelm as he falls.
Trivia: When this film was made, many of the original, Russian crew members involved in this historic incident were very upset about the submarine crew being portrayed as drunkards. Oddly enough, one of the promotional items given out at premieres and to executives was a silver K-19 vodka flask.
Trivia: This film is loosely based on the Scopes Case, where in 1925, a Tennesee subsitute teacher was accused of violating a law that prohibits the teaching of Darwin's theory of evolution. This case pitted Christian fundamentalists (who rejected the theory of evolution as they felt it contradict their literal belief of the Bible) against supporters of evolution.
Trivia: When the scene where the cow is blown up was threatened to be cut due to money constrictions George Clooney paid for the effect out of his own pocket feeling it important to the scene. He was right, the scene was wildly popular with audiences. (Source George Clooney Biography at http://www.tiscali.co.uk/entertainment/film/biographies/george_clooney_biog/5).
Trivia: Jimmy Stewart was not the first person picked to play Lindbergh. Stewart at the time was in his mis-40's. The first person at the time the same age that Lindbergh was at the time in 1927, But the actor had been fired by the studio a few days before filming began. His name was Clint Eastwood. Stewart had to lose 25 pounds of weight and dye his hair light brown.
Trivia: Australian playwright David Williamson makes a cameo as the tall player in the opposing team in the football match held near the Pyramids in Egypt.
Trivia: In this film, the word 'Sabra' is used a few times. Sabra means a Jewish person who was actually born in Israel, and not one born in another country who then later moved to the Holy Land.
Trivia: The "Graf Spee" still exists! The USS Salem (which played the part) is now a museum.
Trivia: Filming was delayed for several weeks after Anthony Hopkins fell from a horse and broke his arm. In several scenes, his armor is concealing a plaster cast. Director Anthony Harvey was stricken with hepatitis, causing further delays in post-production editing. Only Katharine Hepburn's intervention stopped the film's Hollywood backers from handing editing duties off to someone else and from possibly shelving the entire project. (From the director's DVD commentary.)
Trivia: Check out the scene in which the elevator opens out into the Columbia Records Co. office. On the wall is a picture of George Clooney's Aunt, Rosemary Clooney, who was a famous actress/singer in the 1950's.